I Fell For My Nemesis

Jocelyn felt like she was in a dream. The wonderful kind you were vaguely upset you woke up from. 

She hadn't had to bring up the Delta issue at all because Keith did it first! Not only that but it went so much better than she could have ever anticipated. Avery West-Slater had been right. 

He cared about her enough that he wasn't mad at her for figuring it out or think less of her for not having much of a personality. He insisted on staying with her even though he was as afraid as she was of messing things up. 

That meant the world to her. She would never be able to put the full extent of her feelings into words. If she thought about it too much she was tempted to cry. Someone wanted her and was willing to stay with her as she figured out who she was outside of being a helper. 

Jocelyn had never felt so loved before. So SEEN. 

She wasn't the invisible girl to Keith. He saw her as she was and still wanted to keep her around. Even if she was boring. Even though she was hurt and he had to do so much to help her right now. 

He never seemed the slightest bit bothered about not being able to go out and do things. He was perfectly content to watch TV or follow complex origami tutorials or do thousand-piece puzzles with her. 

"Do you really not mind being stuck in here with me all the time? I'm sure you have things you would rather be doing," Jocelyn pointed out. 

Keith shook his head and looked at her more seriously than usual so she knew he wasn't joking. "Nope! There's nothing I'd rather be doing than hanging out with my best friend."

His arm was already around her since they were watching TV and he pulled her slightly closer so he could kiss her cheek. He did that sort of thing a lot and it always made her heart stutter. What she didn't understand was why he didn't do more. And still used the label of "best friends" when best friends normally didn't kiss each other. 

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It had been a few months since she got hurt. Physical therapy was coming along but she still couldn't walk without her brace. At least she no longer needed the crutches. Those had been the worst to navigate with in a place as crowded as New York. 

They couldn't really go out because she wasn't supposed to overdo it. She had a feeling the places Keith wanted to go involved a lot of walking. 

"Is there anything you want to do once you're feeling better?" he asked curiously.

Jocelyn had one thing in mind. "I'd like to go to the zoo. I've only been once but I kind of ended up watching people more than animals." 

"That…sounds just like you, honestly. We can go to the zoo. I can't even remember the last time I went. I'm not sure whether I liked the monkeys or the penguins better because they were both pretty cool to see."

"I vaguely remember seeing an elephant but I was a bit distracted."

Keith raised an eyebrow. "By people watching?"

"It was the specific people I was watching. I ran into Mercury's family and was curious so I sort of followed them," Jocelyn confessed. 

"For real?!"

"Yeah. He wasn't very happy about it when he caught me. I had to explain who I was and what I was doing. Probably the most embarrassing thing to ever happen to me. He forgave me though. Even said we're friends."

"You're actually friends with Mercury now?"

"Why not? I'm actually friends with you." 

Keith frowned. "That is completely different! We knew each other outside of hero work for a long time. You only knew him as a hero then found out his secret identity by accident." 

"I don't see why this is a problem," Joss said in confusion. "It would be nice to know who the others are too so I can support them from a distance but I doubt that will ever happen. I at least want to tell MultiMan I ended up being okay since he helped me but that's never going to happen either."

"You really want to be friends with everyone? Even Red Dynamo?"

"Why not? I was confused why Mercury wanted to bother with me after I sort of stalked his family and he said you can never have too many friends."

Keith shook his head in disbelief and muttered, "That guy really is too perfect. What's he like outside of the suit?"

"Very happy to be with his family," Joss said as she thought back to how he acted all morning at the zoo and the conversation he had with him later about retirement. "He really loves them. I think it's sweet."

"Never would have pictured him as a devoted family man but I suppose it makes sense considering he retired to get married. He has a kid, right?"

"Two. A daughter and a son." 

Daniel West-Slater had been born not long after she was hurt. She saw it on Facebook when mindlessly scrolling on her phone during one of her many, many hours alone during the recovery process. 

"Have you seen them both?" Keith asked. 

"His daughter was at the zoo but his son was only born recently. I've seen pictures. They both look at lot like him. They certainly don't favor their mother. She's…rather unique."

"And you're not going to tell me how because you don't want to give who they are away?"

"Not my secret to tell," Jocelyn said apologetically. "I didn't tell them about you either so you don't have to worry about that."

"Like I'd worry about Mercury telling anybody who I am. The guy's as straight an arrow as they come. Or…he was. I suppose he did end up helping out the antihero he married take down Nolan Hunsacher." 

"I think they did the right thing. My medical bills are not nearly what they would have been if they hadn't broken up the monopoly on privatized healthcare. I'm incredibly grateful for that."

"Huh. I wouldn't have thought of that."

"They did an awful lot of good for this country and very few people will ever know. I'm glad they're happy." 

"Then you're not jealous?" Keith asked suddenly. 

Jocelyn looked at him in utmost confusion. "What? Why would I possibly be jealous?"

"Of Mercury's wife."

"For what?"

"Being Mercury's wife."

Ah. His comment about her being friends with Mercury being different than being friends with him made a lot more sense now. His inferiority complex toward his old hero colleague hadn't gone away. 

"Not in the slightest," Jocelyn said honestly before deciding to tease him. "I've always been more of a Delta fan anyway. Mercury was way overhyped."

Keith flashed her a relieved grin. "Is that so?"

"Yep. Delta's way funnier and better looking. Besides, haven't you ever heard that opposites attract? Mercury is way too much like me to experience any degree of interest. His wife is a real character;  I think that's why he loves her so much." 

"Really?"

"Yes. I asked him how he handled retirement and he said it was because he was able to do things with his wife and her friends to fill the empty hours. Does that sound familiar to you at all?"

Surprise registered on his face. "Yeah. Never would have pegged you two as having similar personalities."

"Neither would I. Shows what we know about other people, doesn't it? You only see a fragment of what's going on under the surface. And I can't be positive either since I didn't talk to him much but that is the impression I got," Jocelyn said with a shrug. "Who would want to be with someone just like them, anyway? That seems boring. I think having different perspectives and personality types helps keep things interesting."

"I definitely don't want to be around someone just like me all the time. That sounds horrible."

Keith made a show of shuddering and pulling a face and she rolled her eyes and poked him, telling him to be nice. She didn't like when he got all self-deprecating but knew there was nothing she could do about it. That was something he needed to work on and he wouldn't do it until he wanted to. 

Jocelyn couldn't fix him. All she could do was continue to care about him while he decided whether or not he wanted to fix himself. 

He clearly had some sort of traumatic past but he had never talked about it in detail. She knew it wasn't her place to ask. He would share when or if he was ready. After all, she hadn't told him anything specific about her childhood. 

She wasn't sure she wanted to—she had never told anyone about it—but if they were going to have a real relationship someday they would need to let each other know what they were carrying. That was a problem a lot of her clients had. They went into a relationship without being willing to work with the other person's baggage (or their own) and expected things to be fine.. That never worked.